The sky didn't just darken; it ionized. Static electricity danced across the needles of the ancient pines, and the smell of ozone masked the scent of the forest. Nam Goong-jin, the 'Thunder-God', hovered forty feet above the ground, his gold-trimmed armor reflecting the blue arcs of lightning coiling around his hammer.
"You're a long way from the Association office, Director's dog," Kang-woo said. He didn't look up. He was busy coating his jagged ink-blade with a thin layer of 'Gray Paradox' mana.
"And you're a long way from human, monster!" Nam Goong-jin roared.
He didn't wait. He descended like a falling star, his hammer—The Mjolnir-Replica—trailing a wake of white-hot thunder.
[Warning: High-Energy Kinetic Strike detected.]
Kang-woo didn't dodge. He signaled the Knight-Commander. The shadow-giant stepped forward, planting its feet and raising its ink-spear. It wasn't trying to block; it was trying to ground the strike.
BOOM!
The collision sent a shockwave that flattened every tree within fifty yards. The Knight-Commander's armor cracked, the Ogre-hide reinforcement vaporizing instantly, but it held. The lightning flowed through the spear and into the earth, turning the dirt into glass.
"A summon holding back my 'Heaven's Bolt'?" Goong-jin's eyes widened. "Impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible when you're fighting a debt you can't pay," Kang-woo said, appearing behind the S-rank in a flicker of black mist.
[Skill: 'Abyssal Step' combined with 'Grave-Hook'.]
Three chains of solidified ink erupted from the air, wrapping around Goong-jin's throat and limbs. The S-rank snarled, his body erupting in a 360-degree burst of electricity that shattered the chains. He spun his hammer, aiming for Kang-woo's head, but Kang-woo was already gone, melting back into the shadows of the falling debris.
"Coward! Face me!" Goong-jin yelled, his hammer glowing with blinding intensity. "I am the pinnacle of Rank-S! I have cleared gates you couldn't even dream of!"
"That's the problem with you 'pinnacle' types," Kang-woo's voice echoed from the trees. "You think the gate is the end. For me, the gate was just the front door."
From the shadows, a dozen 'Paper-Bound Thralls'—Yeon-hee's contribution—erupted, distracting the Association's 'Falcon' unit. While the airborne hunters were busy shredded paper and dodging needles, Kang-woo prepared his true strike.
He reached into the 'Sovereign's Ledger'. He didn't pull mana from his heart; he pulled it from the Crown on his chest.
[Skill: 'Audit of the Thunder' initiated.][Condition: Absorb the opponent's kinetic energy into the 'Ink'.]
Goong-jin charged again, his hammer gathering enough energy to level a mountain. "DIE!"
The hammer struck Kang-woo's raised hand.
There was no explosion.
The blue lightning touched Kang-woo's palm and was instantly turned into black, viscous liquid. The energy didn't vanish; it was refracted. Kang-woo's silver eyes glowed with a terrifying brilliance as the black liquid crawled up the S-rank's hammer, seizing the weapon's core.
"What... what is this?" Goong-jin pulled, but the hammer wouldn't move. It was like it was stuck in a black hole.
"This is the interest on your power," Kang-woo said.
He twisted his hand. The black ink on the hammer detonated.
[Skill: 'Ink-Burst: Paradox' activated.]
The explosion was silent but devastating. It wasn't fire; it was a localized collapse of space. Nam Goong-jin's golden armor shattered like porcelain. He was thrown backward, his chest scorched and his mana-veins ruptured. The 'Thunder-God' hit the ground, his hammer falling meters away, inert and gray.
The 'Falcon' unit stopped mid-air. Their leader, an S-rank, had been neutralized in less than three minutes.
Yeon-hee stepped out from behind a tree, her paper arm regrowing as she watched the fallen hero. "Impressive. You didn't just beat him; you stole the resonance of his mana."
"He was noisy," Kang-woo said, his breath coming in shallow hitches. Even with his new level, fighting an S-rank took its toll. His 'Life-Debt' bond with Seol-ah throbbed—she was feeling his exhaustion from miles away.
He walked over to the unconscious Goong-jin and placed a hand on his forehead.
[Condition: Soul-Harvest available.][Target: Rank-S Awakened.][Yield: 5 Years of Lifespan / Skill: 'Thunder-Call'.]
Kang-woo's hand hovered there.
"If you kill him, there's no turning back," Yeon-hee warned. "The Association will move from 'capture' to 'exterminate'. They'll send the 'World-Rankers'."
"They're already going to do that," Kang-woo said.
He didn't harvest the soul. Instead, he used the 'Auditor's Ink' to write a single, glowing rune on Goong-jin's forehead.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm leaving a receipt," Kang-woo said.
[New Skill: 'Sovereign's Mark' applied.][Effect: The target's mana is now partially tethered to the Sovereign. Every time Goong-jin uses his power, I get a cut.]
"Let's go to Busan," Kang-woo said, turning away from the carnage. "I'm done playing with dogs. I want to see the masters."
As they disappeared into the fog, the 'Falcon' unit descended to recover their fallen leader. They found him alive, but when their healers touched his forehead, they were thrown back by a chilling, silver shock.
On Goong-jin's brow, the ink pulsed with a message only the Association Directors could read:
PROPERTY OF THE SHATTERED THRONE.